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Spanish press label Real Madrid ‘a paranormal phenomenon’ after Champions League exploits

The Spanish side won the title in La Liga last week and will now aim for a 14th European Cup success at the end of the month

Sports Staff
Thursday 05 May 2022 13:05 BST
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Spanish media heaped praise on Real Madrid after the LaLiga winners pulled off a remarkable comeback win against Manchester City on Wednesday to advance to the Champions League final.

Leading 1-0 with minutes to go, City seemed to be heading for Paris before a late Rodrygo double and an extra-time penalty from Karim Benzema gave the hosts an unlikely 3-1 win on the night and secured a 6-5 victory on aggregate.

“Real Madrid are out of this world,” Madrid-based AS said in their headline, accompanied by a picture of the squad celebrating in front of a section of the home crowd.

Sport newspaper simply went with “Incredible” after Real once again turned around a first-leg deficit following their last-16 win against Paris St. Germain earlier in the competition.

Marca hailed it as the “greatest night in the history of the Bernabeu”.

“If PSG was already inexplicable, if Chelsea was already incredible, last night in Chamartin was, simply, the best night of a stadium that has seen this team in all colours and that is a lot to say,” read their lead story.

The Barcelona-based Mundo Deportivo described it as “Groundhog Day” while Catalan radio station RAC1 said “this is not football, it’s a paranormal phenomenon”.

Real will take on Liverpool in a rematch of the 2018 Champions League final at the Stade de France on 28 May.

Manager Carlo Ancelotti has suggested it will be “like a derby” for him, having taken over at the Santiago Bernabeu in the summer after leaving Liverpool’s Merseyside rivals Everton.

Los Blancos won the Spanish league title with a 4-0 success last weekend, meaning Ancelotti became the first head coach to win the national championship in each of Europe’s five biggest leagues.

Additional reporting by Reuters

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